Reagan was First Lady of California during her husband's two terms as governor. She disliked living in Sacramento, which lacked the excitement, social life, and mild
climate to which she was accustomed in Los Angeles. She first attracted controversy early in 1967, when, after four months' residence in the California Governor's Mansion
in Sacramento, she moved her family into a wealthy suburb because fire officials had labeled the mansion as a "firetrap". Though the Reagans leased the new house at
their expense, the move was viewed by many as snobbish. Nancy defended her actions as being for the good of her family, a judgment with which her husband readily agreed.
Friends of the family later helped support the cost of the leased house, while Nancy Reagan supervised construction of a new ranch-style governor's residence in nearby
Carmichael. The new residence was finished just as Ronald Reagan left office in 1975, but his successor, Jerry Brown, refused to live there. It was sold in 1982, and
California governors have been living in improvised arrangements ever since.